Whatever you think of the Occupy phenomenon, what happened in Oakland is criminal. In this video, you can clearly see one of the cops step back behind the line and lob one of those flash-bang grenades directly into a crowd that had come to the aid of Scott Olsen, a military vet who had already suffered a fractured skull (or did it happen in the second explosion?) At the very least, the mayor and police chief should resign. And that cop should go to jail. Period. This is truly awful. All they've done is pour gas on the fire. It's hard to believe that in 2011 police forces are still so inept and sadistic.

SINCE this involves free and fair speech for Tea Party Events, it does not matter for hypocrites on the left, they only tout free speech if it applies to them.

The Atlanta Tea Party has inquired on several occasions about securing city venues like Woodruff Park to hold rallies for conservative activists. Because of the the fees involved, and extensive bureaucratic red tape regarding the permit process, we decided to hold past events at the State Capitol instead. We were also told by Capitol Police we could not have signs on poles or sticks, or not allowed to even pass out little flags to wave, because they were held up by sticks. We complied, as we have always followed the letter of the law and conducted ourselves with honor of our City, State, and Country.

Occupy Atlanta has had control of Woodruff Park for the past weeks with no permit, no fees, the use of poles and sticks to hold some signs and their tents, and a disregard for public health with the conditions they are living in at the Park. Had Tea Party activists conducted themselves like Occupy protesters, they would have been arrested immediately, but Mayor Kasim Reed rewarded their disregard for the law with an Executive Order allowing them to stay, stating that he sympathizes with them. The Mayor has chosen to grant special rights and privileges regarding free speech based on which group is in line with his own political ideology. This action by Mayor Reed has set a precedent that has a profound and chilling effect on the First Amendment rights of not only conservative activists, but of all citizens.

The Atlanta Tea Party is planning a rally in the spring and we will seek to use a City venue. If equal rights are not shown and if we are denied, or forced to go through an extensive permit process and pay any fees whatsoever, we will file a discrimination law suit against the City of Atlanta.

Sorry, doesn't make sense.The anti-Tea Party voice uses isolated incidents, takes pictures of only White people and uses this to set their own propaganda blemish on the real Tea Party issues.

Monte, the left is preying on your fears and paranoia's with lies and cherry picked photo's. AGAIN (sigh) The speakers I heard were white, hispanic, black. They were democrats and Independents too. Just concerned people against the Big Government trying to control and tax you to death. I have no doubt that you are at least a Socialist Democrat. I saw and heard your video and what I heard was a very stoned person on a long ramble. Might I suggest sobriety when you speak in public?

See you in a different non-dead forum. I just noticed this is not the usual OWS forum i posted in the last few days. The GD forum should not be polluted by mine or your political OWS stuff. My bad

Fortherecord, I'm claiming: "I'm connecting elements across the internet, and threading this rich history into a tapestry as I see it — from the point of view of a Hippie-Cowboy-Trail Grub, GD lover, Taper, soundman, electronics tech, and Broadcast Engineer. I am provoking thought."

Rasta, I do not have a MBA in Journalism or Communications. In my video, I am not reading from notes or a teleprompter. I've never worked in a Board Room giving presentations to The Board of Directors.

I'm a professional trouble-shooter! I'm proud that I'm able to state CLEARLY the problems I'm finding! Shooting the messenger tells me I'm achieving good results.

"I met a huge bunch of NJ Dead-heads one day in 1972. That evening, several carloads of us made a rendezvous to celebrate our meeting. Some redneck cops with a vendetta had a roadblock setup nearby the highway exit we had just taken. It was virtually an illegal stop, illegal search, and illegal seizure operation that was run by a bunch of rogue HICK cops in upstate NY. Sure, we were GUILTY of "driving while Hippie!" Five of us hippies got busted together in my car for some bullshit mary-jane possession charges..."

"...It was Grateful Dead and Allman Brothers Band at RFK Stadium, Washington, D.C., for the weekend. My probation officer never knew the fact that I traveled out of state illegally to get here, without asking for his permission first. The crowds were estimated at 100,000. On Saturday, the Dead played before the Allmans. It was very hot, sunny, and over 100° F (39° C). Several of my friends and me were sitting high up in the stands. The GD were almost ready to take the stage. Our position relative to front of the soundboard platform: we were at about 2 o'clock high - not even close for taping. I was tripping on a double-dose of very good LSD. It was a 2-way hit of orange-barrel acid that I had dropped 2 hours earlier. We were smoking bowls of Nepalese hash and taking in the scenery..."

"...I was just sitting there peacefully - with my state-of-the-art portable cassette taping system. It was pathetic and ridiculous!"

I know one thing, I sure as hell could and would not speak in public stoned, no way, Jose! (and hose b too)

But serious, when I saw your video, I was thinkin you sure seemed that way. For me to be on my "A" game, I dan't speak while hippy - lol

I'll reiterate, at least on a local level, both the Tea Party and OWS seem very peaceful and not that far apart on the issues. I've seen/heard some very hateful and untrue stuff about both movements, but mostly about the TP. So i tend to get very defensive, sarcastic and angry about it. Have you noticed?

Rasta, I have several medical issues. I've had my legal mmj permit for several years. It really helps.

I agree the Tea Party and OWS movements got plenty of bad PR. Both movements are visibly non-violent and peaceful at their rallies.

The Tea Party rallies frequently got bad PR due to images of gun-toting folks, and images of too many whacko signs with hate-speech.

OWS rallies frequently get bad PR due to a lack of a clear message. It's a new movement. The message(s) is developing. It's just beginning. The mainstream press regularly refers to protesters at OWS rallies as "mobs". Complete bullshit!

OWS is open to everyone. OWS movements are highly motivated, and they police themselves pretty damned well. OWS movements don't allow hate-signs or hate-speech. They have General Assembly meetings every day. They keep their protest areas and their encampments clean, organized, and functional. They are expressing Free Speech.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, who recently was Denver's Mayor, cited public safety as a key reason for sending in Denver cops and Colorado State Patrol in riot gear to break up the Occupy Denver campsite at 3 a.m. on 14 Oct 2011.

"We had people out there cleaning up [the Occupy Denver campsite]. The cleanup was squalid...with the feces -- it was just really unsafe,” Hickenlooper said.

Does anyone on Planet Earth actually believe Hickenlooper's disgusting argument made when describing this raid on the Occuppy Denver scene after the campsite was cleared? Sure Governor, we're just dinking on Facebook and Twitter:

"Hey everyone, come on down and protest with us in our local OWS movement. We're gonna gather together; do some aimless protests; take a shit right where we're standing; and then we're gonna camp in our own shit piles! We love sitting in our own piles of shit! Whoop-eeee!" said the tooth-fairy.